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| Artist's Rendering of Tower |
Enjoy our chat with Joe Mancinelli, Liuna International Vice President and Manager Central Eastern Canada, with respect to Liuna’s newest planned addition to Hamilton’s downtown core:
The following questions were posed to Mr. Mancinelli. His responses are below the questions.
1.Can you tell us a little bit about this new project. What prompted it and how did the partnership with the Hi Rise Group come about?
2. Who is the target group for this project? Who do you envision your customers being?
3. How will this project contribute to community building, especially as it applies to the downtown core?
4. If people are interested, how do they go about finding out more about it?
5. Is there anything else you’d like Hamiltonians to know about this project?
The following questions were posed to Mr. Mancinelli. His responses are below the questions.
1.Can you tell us a little bit about this new project. What prompted it and how did the partnership with the Hi Rise Group come about?
2. Who is the target group for this project? Who do you envision your customers being?
3. How will this project contribute to community building, especially as it applies to the downtown core?
4. If people are interested, how do they go about finding out more about it?
5. Is there anything else you’d like Hamiltonians to know about this project?
Mr. Mancinelli's reply:
The project spans from King Street East along Hughson North to King William, the length of the City block.
More specifically,
Approximately 500,000 square feet of residential space contained in two (2) - 30 storey towers; one tower on King William that will be a condo tower and the other on King Street that will be a rental tower;
Approximately 20,000 square feet of retail space on both King St and King William
529 units and 350 parking spaces;
The street elevation of the building is designed to reflect the look, feel and scale of the existing building along both King St and King William. The two towers will feature an contemporary architectural design which will set a new standard for downtown Hamilton
Total project value is in excess of $300 million
The project will bring hundreds, if not thousands of new residents on the streets of Hamilton.
Therefore, this is more than a construction/real estate project. It is a significant economic impact on the City of Hamilton.
The target group is as always a mix of investors, empty nesters and new home owners. The rental tower will accommodate those who prefer not owning as well as those who cannot afford the significant prices of housing in the Hamilton market.
The sales office should be opened as soon as the City of Hamilton gives us the green light to proceed.
LiUNA is proud of our involvement in the redevelopment of Hamilton. The list of projects is numerous and game-changing. However the importance of these projects for LiUNA’s pension plan are the significant financial returns, for LiUNA in Hamilton it is numerous jobs that are being created and for the City of Hamilton it is important renewal.
The architecture is avant-garde and something new and fresh for the Hamilton skyline. The streetscape will have a nostalgic feel and have a human scale and there will be two stories of retail space at both King and King William. The tall buildings will step back from the street. Therefore it is more about the people and the project’s effect on the future of the City, as opposed to the architecture.
Thanks to Mr. Mancinelli for engaging with Hamiltonians via The Hamiltonian.
The renderings make it look so out of context and character along King St. Just my thought. I can be wrong lol. If this is allowed then we need to open up the downtown to similar developments so something like this is the leading edge and will be surrounded by similar buildings. I guess first in may look out of character. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteBalance
"If this is allowed then we need to open up the downtown to similar developments so something like this is the leading edge and will be surrounded by similar buildings."
DeleteThat's exactly what should be done.
J. Kellar
Sorry Joe, but I believe you have lost your way.
ReplyDeleteYour unbridled support for an LRT proposal which would have replaced existing union work with unorganized replacements was illuminating-and equally disturbing.
Prioritizing real estate development at the expense of local labour confirms greed is the new creed.This development does serve to help connect those dots.
You have betrayed ATU 107
A sorry state of affairs.
@Graham. It's a very competitive world out there and most people will follow the money. Businessme/women put business first. It's just the way it is.
DeleteThe union thing seemed to be an afterthought and only caught some real fire after the Union President was interviewed on The Hamiltonian. Everyone seemed to wake up after that, including some local councilors who are trying to fly that flag, rather poorly I might add.
The realistic side of me says this is business, and that's the way the world runs. I support this project in principle.
Sorce
for the record, I too support the project.
DeleteMy question would be is Mr. Mancinelli a businessman, or a union leader?
LiUNA's current position on the labour component is "there is solid legislation in this Province that allows for the opportunity to organize the unorganized"
Understand?
They believe it will be more effective to fight after the fact, than to actually protect existing work, which the current local is advocating for in the strongest possible context.
Show me a single public comment from LiUNA in support of ATU 107. I can't find one.
LiUNA has abandoned the rank and file of local labour in favour of dollar signs.
I find that reprehensible.
I find it Business.
DeleteI admire your sense here but if everyone was of the same mind,there'd be very little pollution, sharing of the world's resources with the poor etc. Not going to happen and Hamilton business people are no different than anyone else in the business world
Sorce
"business people" masquerading as union executives, in an effort to instill confidence.
DeleteNice.
I fail to see how supporting local labour in this undertaking would negatively impact LiUNA's "business interests"
If there is an explanation, lets hear it.
Ontario's actively employed workforce numbers 7.628 million, of which 1.574 million are unionized.
DeleteAnd close to 1 million of those are employed in the public sector.
The number of unionized workers in the province's public sector has increased roughly 50% in the last 20 years, and 72% of Ontarians who work in the public sector are union members.
Just one in ten Ontarians working in the private sector are union members.
This despite the fact that precarious and part time work has increased five-fold in Ontario since 1997.
Ontario's total unionization rate has declined 10% in the last two decades and is about 20% lower than the national average, after removing Ontario from that sample.
Maybe there is an opportunity for unions to prove their value to workers without having their dues-paying membership is directly assigned by the government.
Mike Cents
huh?
Deleteorangemike
I think this will be a great addition to the core. We need things like this to break out of our rut. We also need things like this to make sure we can survive LRT.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you will get a lot of support for this project. well done!
Core Kid
Looks fantastic! Ignore the naysayers. If it were up to them, nothing would ever get done or change. Hope city council supports this and does not interfere.
ReplyDeleteJ. Kellar
I think we should support this. It makes more sense to intensify in the core ,than sprawl elsewhere. If LRT- no matter how mis-guided- is a go, then we will need to make sure that we support it. I think this development will be right for this point in our history.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest to Mr. M. and his team to not get dissuaded. It's very "Hamilton" to counter anything new. Some Hamiltonians are so jaded, they can't see the future anymore. I still believe that LRT will be the biggest mistake we have ever made, but I am not about to throw in the towel on this city.
Sorce
Two new white elephants at the expense of you and I. That's what this is going to be. There is no business case for it. Nada.If there was, others would be chomping at the bit. As an investor, why would I buy a condo when there is going to be a competing rental building next door?
ReplyDeleteAs a homeowner why would I want to buy and live next door to a rental building with a transient population? Why would I want to live on King st and King William where after dark one hears sirens and cries for help from women being followed, people being mugged? Is it because I want to be panhandled as soon as I get down on street level? ... The only way this project could get off the ground is with MASSIVE subsidies from taxpayers. You and I will be paying for this boondoggle.
Why would anyone want to live in Stoney Creek, where you can be beaten to death in a home invasion because the assailants got kicked out of a roadhouse after drunkenly picking fights, and elementary schools are littered with corpses? Where youth gangs of kids not old enough to drive kill one another? Where homebuilders get nabbed for assault & DUI on cocaine? here Where 70 year olds sexually assault children in suburban parks? Why would anyone want to live on the east mountain, where teenage girls will lethally stab you in the neck? Why move to Glanbrook when visible minorities are beaten with baseball bats?
DeleteLocation, location, location.
Antisthenes
distance, distance, distance.
DeleteWhere successful core dwellers go to escape their neighbours.
Where real estate values actually appreciate.
The Crick.
Hamilton's rebuttal to the 'Cork.
Demi
YOY Appreciation, Oct 2017 vs Oct 2016
DeleteHamilton Centre: 16.3%
Stoney Creek: 5.3%
Chacun a son gout.
http://www.rahb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/RAHB-Market-Activity-for-Oct.png
Raw
YOY Appreciation, Dec 2016 vs Dec 2015
DeleteHamilton Centre: 29.0% (up $68,426)
Stoney Creek: 9.3% (up $40,570)
http://www.rahb.ca/2017/01/sales-set-record-december-2016/
Raw
"Hamilton Centre, which stretches from John St. to Kenilworth, and from the escarpment to Hamilton Harbour"
DeleteClose. So close.
"the biggest price jumps between 2015 and 2016 were in the Hamilton East area stretching past Kenilworth to include the Beach Strip, McQuesten, Glenview East and Redhill"
Up 24%, compared to 14% (area wide) on an average value of $457,452 in Hamilton East versus $276,549 in Hamilton Centre.
CBC Hamilton 2/6/17
Son gout mal.
Demi
“Home prices in central Hamilton have more than doubled in the past decade, rising 129.5 per cent between 2006 and 2016, according to year-end price and sales numbers released by the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington. That area includes neighbourhoods between James Street and Kenilworth Avenue, and the waterfront to the escarpment. Hamilton Centre's median price of homes sold in 2016 was $276,549 while in 2006, the median price of homes sold was $120,529. That area is the hottest in the city over the past decade…”
Deletehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/prices-in-central-hamilton-more-than-double-in-10-years-1.3959677
Median Home Price Increases, 2006-2016
Hamilton Centre: +129.5%
Burlington: +115.6%
Dundas: +98.7%
Hamilton West: 96.4%
Ancaster: +92.4%
Hamilton East: +90.6%
Hamilton Mountain: +88.4%
Stoney Creek: +84.8%
Flamborough: +82.5%
Waterdown: +75.2%
Glanbrook: +60.7%
http://rahb.ca/press/2017/forecast/charts/index.html#HW
Raw
"The biggest price jumps between 2015 and 2016 were in the Hamilton East area, stretching past Kenilworth to include the Beach Strip, McQuesten, Glenview East and Red Hill. The median price for a home in that area rose 24 per cent, to $298,417 last year from $240,418 in 2015."
Deletehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/prices-in-central-hamilton-more-than-double-in-10-years-1.3959677
By comparison, between 2015 and 2016, the median price for a home in Hamilton Centre rose 21.8 per cent, to $276,549 last year from $226,989 in 2015.
Raw
By comparison, the median price for a home in Hamilton Center rose 21.8%, to $276,549 last year,
Deletewhich is still more than 35% BELOW local real estate averages.
As for actual equity? Too complicated an equation for some.
Every city gets it's burden.
Ours is centralized.
Value, value, value.
Demi
You move the goalposts as often as you invent quotes.
DeleteYour initial claim was that "the Crick" was "where real estate values actually appreciate," a claim demonstrably untrue. As you point out, real estate in Hamilton Centre was the second highest in the market for 2915-2016 (I believe Stoney Creek was around 17%).
You might also consider that properties in urban areas are, on average, much smaller than suburban properties. A new apartment like the Vrancor build at 140-150 Main West rents at $1400-$1700 a month for a one-bedroom unit. As of last year, CMHC pegged rents in the Downtown Core at $837/mo, vs $763/mo in "The Crick".
As for "burden", Ward 2 & 3 have 4-5 times the population density per hectare of Wards 9 & 10, meaning that resources are used efficiently. That density is increasing steadily as new residential towers such as the above project come online. They see exponential value in the core, where some only look for spaces to practice their jaded lamentations and tired stereotypes.
People have many communities from which to choose in Hamilton and the GHA but I don't understand why some feel the need to peddle fear, hatred and falsehoods in order to make themselves feel more secure in their choices. It's almost as if they're trying to convince themselves more than anyone.
Raw
"almost half of the people in the downtown neighbourhood bounded by James, King, Wellington and Cannon are living below the poverty line"
Delete"42% don't have a high school diploma"
Hamilton Spectator "Code Red-The Great Divide" 8/25/10
Demi
"we have a huge mental illness population down in the core"
DeleteDr. Walter Owsianik, Hamilton Spectator, "Code Red-Poverty's Dark Side,4/26/10
Demi
Further evidence of the compassion deficit in ring suburbs. Those in need in those communities are exported, not supported.
DeleteDemi
evidence? I see your opinion, but dont see any evidence.
Deleteorangemike
Percentage of University-Educated Residents, By Ward, 2011
DeleteWard 12: 41.3%
Ward 1: 40.4%
Ward 13: 35.6%
Ward 2: 25.5%
Ward 14: 23.7%
Ward 8: 23.0%
Ward 11: 22.2%
Hamilton: 21.5%
Ward 9: 18.3%
Ward 10: 18.0%
Ward 7: 16.3%
Ward 6: 13.6%
Ward 5: 12.6%
Ward 3: 11.11%
Ward 4: 7.1%
https://www.hamilton.ca/city-initiatives/strategies-actions/ward-profiles
Demi
they are clever, but not compassionate
DeleteDemi
Subsidized Residential Care Facility Beds By Ward
DeleteWard 1: 36
Ward 2: 535
Ward 3: 320
Ward 4: 53
Ward 5: 0
Ward 6: 53
Ward 7: 24
Ward 8: 18
Ward 9: 10
Ward 10: 0
Ward 11: 0
Ward 12: 0
Ward 13: 58
Ward 14: 0
Ward 15: 24
75% of the subsidized beds in the system are located in Wards 2 & 3. 73% of the city's subsidized residential psychiatric bed capacity is located in Wards 2 & 3. 0% is located in Wards 9 & 10.
44% of the city's total RCF bed capacity is located in Wards 2 & 3. 7% is located in Wards 9 & 10.
Some folks are more comfortable on (segre)gated communities.
Demi
this is efficiency.
DeleteWhy place services where there is little need?
Some folks find comfort wherever they can take it.
Raw
The above comment wasn't me, but it does go to show Demi Graham's Nov 15 comment about a "centralized burden" is baseless hyperbole. Similarly, the reason there's "a huge mental illness population in the core" (Nov 16 comment) is because that's where the City has concentrated services.
DeleteRaw
"When we were looking for an AirBnB to stay in, we were told to stay away from the neighborhoods marked as "poor" as they are dangerous. When we spoke to law enforcement as part of our study, we received similar insights. A look at Zillow, backed up with an eye test, also suggests that the areas marked poor are indeed occupied by people that are, on average, significantly poorer than those people living in the areas marked affluent.
DeleteWhat is obvious here is that the poor neighborhoods are profitable while the affluent neighborhoods are not. Throughout the poor neighborhoods, the city is -- TODAY -- bringing in more revenue than they will spend to maintain the neighborhood, and that's assuming they actually invest the money to maintain the neighborhood (which they have not been). If they fail to maintain the neighborhood, the profit margins will be even higher.
This might strike some of you as surprising, yet it is important to understand that it is a consistent feature we see revealed in city after city after city all over North America. Poor neighborhoods subsidize the affluent; it is a ubiquitous condition of the American development pattern."
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/1/10/poor-neighborhoods-make-the-best-investment
Raw
I think we should move all of the mental health services to Ancaster,and watch as the crazies that inhabit the core make the trek up the hill.
DeleteProblem solved. The core is clean.
Chicken, meet egg.
Everyone knows poor people subsidize the wealthy-common sense.
Raw
teenie tiny houses for giant heads with empty wallets.
Deletea utopia.
no one chooses the core, yet many linger, awaiting their moment in the grinder
no one wants to be there, evidence their collective desire to change everything and anything that exists in a truly pathetic effort to transform to something more appealing...Portland...Amsterdam.
anywhere but there.
I enjoy collecting their rent, it subsidizes my existence
throw another log on the fire.
Sashimi
I didn't like the building on the corner's design - looks cheap compared to the right house.. so I did some re-renders:
ReplyDeletehttps://i.imgur.com/TDFfCe2.jpg
and
https://i.imgur.com/03hQ7Rb.jpg
this is going to be amazing,so prepare to be amazed.
ReplyDeletewe've been busy advocating,planning, making certain street level storefronts meet our current standards.
we're thinking meth clinic right beside one of those boutique marijuana dispensaries,and another pay day loan company, cant have enough of those, and of course a pizza by the slice joint...kind of "one-stop shopping center" megapalooza for millennials.
this is forward thinking.it'll be a gamechanger. it's a no-brainer.
kind of a shame the train wont stop right in front. we'll see about that.
orangemike
Train? Prepare to get your wig blown back, old man.
Deletehttps://soundcloud.com/samantha-craggs/terry-whitehead-quotes-from-evacuated-tube-transport-technology-space-travel-on-earth#t=0:00
Dias
swoosh
DeleteRaw
Ward 3 Councilor Matthew Green says there is a growing population of displaced people in his ward,"living along rail lines, public parks, and in abandoned buildings"
ReplyDeleteGreen hopes to clear regulatory approvals to "provide homes 425 sq. ft (or smaller) to those in need"
"I just want to be on the record that this will not solve the problem" he added.
orangemike
a weekend in the core:
ReplyDelete"man arrested for yelling FHRITP at downtown Police Station" Hamilton Spectator, 11/25/17
"man stabbed in attempted wallet theft downtown"
Hamilton Spectator, 11/27/17
"woman in her 60's assaulted in broad daylight downtown" Hamilton Spectator, 11/27/17
Fear and hatred in abundance
Meanwhile, in Stoney Creek, Santa stopped by for a visit.
Cuz they are nice in Stoney Creek.
orangemike
Lower Stoney Creek, anyway. Green Mountain grow op shootings, Hwy 56 homicide, gas station stabbings by teenage escorts... Upper Stoney Creek is extra festive.
DeleteTaro East
I remember when Ma owned the corner at Tapleytown and Mud.It was her most lucrative stroll, but she'd still get lonely out there.Times sure have changed.
DeleteMisty water coloured memories.
orangemike
A union executive masquerading as a businessman.
ReplyDeleteI remember when businessmen where the antithesis of union executives.
The enemy.
Lines have now blurred, it's getting harder to tell who is doing what to whom.
LiUNA has abandoned local labour in pursuit of lucrative real estate developments.
Profit before people.
Who benefits?
"...the Star's investigation found the Labourer's Pension Fund-one of the biggest of it's kind in Ontario-is significantly underfunded, meaning it has more liabilities than assets, and therefore insufficient money to cover current and future pensions" theStar.com 10/10/14 "LiUNA Construction workers shocked to lose half at pension cash-out"
Who benefits?